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8 Ways to Add Value This Holiday Season Without Offering a Discount | iContact

8 Ways to Add Value This Holiday Season Without Offering a Discount | iContact

Offering a discount during the holidays is just one way to drive customers to your store and boost sales. However, when margins are tight and costs are high, relying too heavily on discounting can put additional pressure on your business.

Smart marketers use discounting sparingly. Here are eight other holiday offers that your prospects or customers might enjoy — without you having to knock a few bucks off the price of your product or services.

1. Free Gift Wrapping

Lots of people don’t have the time or inclination to decoratively gift wrap presents. In fact, according to polls from Consumer Reports, Americans spend around three hours boxing, wrapping, taping, and tagging. That’s why many consumers are willing to pay retailers to wrap their gifts for them!

“Wrapping has become a profit center during the holidays,” says retail expert Jack Abelson. “It was a time-honored perk that used to be done for free, and was part of a combination of services we called value. But like so many other things, merchants have gotten away from it and are nickel-and-diming customers.”

Since both time and money are both concerns for your customers during the holidays, stand out from your competitors by offering free gift wrapping for both in-store and online purchases. Your customers will appreciate this simple gesture because it will not only save them time and money, but it also shows that you aren’t trying to squeeze every last dollar from them.

2. Free Shipping

Studies have found that nine out of ten participants list free shipping as the top incentive that would make them shop online more often. Offering this incentive is an absolute must. To encourage your customers to spend more, consider offering free shipping on purchases over a specific dollar amount, such as free shipping on all orders over $50.

3. Bundling

"Bundling is pervasive in several markets, and it works in many cases," Vineet Kumar, an assistant professor in the Marketing Unit at Harvard Business School, told Forbes.

For those unfamiliar, bundling is simply packaging together several products or services at a bargain price. For example, if you use Microsoft Office, you’re paying for a bundle of services, including Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

However, researchers have found that bundling works best when retailers offer “mixed bundling.” This means the customer can purchase the goods or services either as a bundle or separately. Nintendo, for example, gave customers the choice to either purchase a game unit buy itself or paired with a game. Hardware sales were higher by approximately 100,000 units when the bundles were offered.

Moreover, you should bundle products that work well with each other, such as a game console and video game.

"Ideally you should be bundling products that have a positive synergy together," says Kumar, "but what we have shown here is that even when synergy is negative, bundling can be profitable. Bundling might fail because you have chosen the wrong product, but that wouldn't be my biggest worry."

"Bundling is a rather easy way of putting new product offerings together to complement the product line. There's more potential to get it right than to get it wrong."

4. Guides

If you want to show that you’re an expert or authority figure, give your customers the gift of knowledge by creating an educational guide that teaches them all about your product, service, or industry.

For example, you could film a video that shows your customers how to assemble or properly use the drones you’re selling. Or, you could publish an industry guide that discusses the emerging trends to watch out for in the upcoming year.

Once you’ve created your guide, share it with your email newsletter subscribers and social media followers.

5. Tips and Tricks

Product, service, or industry-related tips and tricks are easy for your audience to digest. More importantly, your audience will enjoy these quick pieces of information that enhance their lives.

For example, if you ran a spa or yoga studio, you could offer relaxation tips to combat holiday stress. You could also create a holiday gift guide based on their previous purchases so that your customers aren’t stressed out about finding that perfect gift.

6. Holiday Contest

Running a contest during the holidays is a great way to generate buzz, leads, and sales without spending too much on advertising.

Referral programs where your existing customers can receive a 50% discount if they get ten people to sign up to your newsletter, become a customer, or share your contest.

Hashtag contests on Instagram where you ask your followers to post photos and use the required hashtag.

7. Holiday checklist

As mentioned several times, your customers are looking for ways to save time and money during the holidays. Another way that you can help them achieve this is by putting together a handy holiday checklist.

This could be a checklist on decorating, shopping, traveling, or staying fit during the holidays. If you need some inspiration, here’s a checklistiContact put together when looking for the best marketing automation software.

8. Holiday recipes

This is an excellent idea if you’re in the food industry, like a restaurant or food truck owner. Even if you’re not, you could still have your team share their twist on a favorite holiday recipe. It’s a simple way to humanize your brand while providing value to your customers.

Get creative!

As you can see, there are a variety of ways that you can add value to your customers this holiday season without having to offer a discount. Sharing additional content with your subscribers will help develop your relationship and keep them engage all throughout the holiday season.

However, the most important thing to remember is to have fun and be creative. Think about what your customers want or need and develop unique ideas that can assist them during this wonderful, although hectic, time of year.

How have you added value to your customers during the holidays besides offering a discount? Share your comments below: